April 2008 Greetings

Yet another busy month here in Shingle Creek, at our last Board Meeting we had Council President Barbara Johnson and Wade Bryant from Owens Corning as guests. On Saturday the 15th there were two North side events that kept us all busy with the DFL Senate District Convention at Henry High School and the
Northside Housing Fair at North High School. Along with all of this, the City and State are working on deciding what is going to happen to the Neighborhood
Revitalization Program after funding is scheduled to end in 2009. SCNA Board members and I spent last week at City Hall and at the State Capitol, advocating
for the extension of our funding source and the continuation of the independent multi-jurisdictional Neighborhood Revitalization Program governing body
from becoming just another City department. NRP is an award winning program that is unique in the country! Its a proven program to help us improve our
neighborhoods! We want to be sure its around for future generations! At our April monthly meeting Shingle Creek will be have our annual meeting and Board of Directors elections. All members of the Shingle Creek neighborhood are welcome to become a board member with SCNA! Its free! Its Fun! And everyone is welcome!

SCNA would like to send out a heart felt Thank You to Gail Anderson, Cheryl Anderson, and Lynn Hauger three long time Board Members who have decided to retire and move onto other phases of their lives. Gail and Cheryl both worked very hard to put together the Predatory Lending Forum,along with helping with the Bird Spring Ecology tour around the Retention ponds at 52xx Thomas Ave N and Shingle Creek Clean-up. Gail has also served as SCNA’s Treasurer for the past three years, working very hard on the books and expanding her educational level by taking a grant-writing class. Lynn was my predecessor as SCNA’s Board Chair, during his term SCNA helped bring in the award winning Minneapolis Business Center at 49th and Brooklyn Blvd to our neighborhood, and began the process of the Shingle Creek Welcome sign’s, which were finally hung this week. Our logoed blue and green signs will be hard to miss in the neighborhood!

SCNA would also like to thank Pam Owens and Lori Hanson who represented Shingle Creek at our table at the Northside housing fair. They worked very hard at putting a face to the neighborhood, our organization, and try and help attract home owners and residents to our area. Both are residents who volunteered to spend a wonderful Saturday inside answering your questions about the neighborhood and our programs including our home repair loan packages and yearly events like the Shingle Creek Clean Up or Tour DeCamden. Thank you both for the time that you put in helping SCNA and working with the other neighborhoods tables.

SCNA is also very grateful to our neighbor Mary Scott who’s lending her professional talents and writing skills to help enhance our monthly newsletter and website.

We look forward to seeing many new faces at future board meetings and at our many upcoming events in the planning for the next year!